Those who are according to the Spirit. Romans 8:5-11

The NASB entitles, chapter eight, Life in the Spirit.

I have come to realize that whether we meet up with religious expectations or not, we are, and will be alive in the Spirit.

This idea of life makes more sense to those who are followers of Christ, who long to be more knowledgeable in their understanding of Scripture. You would have to go back to Adam to understand that death, the opposite of spiritual life, meant many things. The primary and most notable aspect of death came in the form of being cut off from the intimacy of a deep and open relationship with God. Jesus also experienced this on the cross. We saw it when He cried out, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Had the Father forsaken His Son?
Hardly. The plan was necessary but painful. It was one in which, Jesus had to pay the full price for Adam’s transgression - An act in which the ownership of the planet was handed over to Satan; and, thereby restore the Father’s relationship with humanity, and set the world right again, without a deceiver to influence ever again.

If you understand that your spirit never dies, then you can surmise that it is only the relationship that dies. You should also grasp that you live eternally with the Father, or you follow your leader Satan, to his demise, and live forever in his torment, permanently cut off from God. Fairly straightforward.

The Law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body, God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4 NLT)

So, having done all that, we no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.  Well, that's what it says, and so it must be true, right?

But didn't Paul talk about this in Romans chapter seven?

But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. (Romans 7:16-19 NASB)

To hear Paul say it makes me feel hopeless, but we are not because he finished this out by saying there is hope and that hope has everything to do with Christ Jesus and His work on that cross.

And with that, we begin looking at Romans 8:5 and beyond.

Romans 8:5 NASB For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Immediately I see two categories of people:

• Those who have their minds set on the flesh.
• And those who are according to the Spirit.

The people who are according to the Spirit, have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.

Set is the Greek word phroneō and means to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion; by implication to be (mentally) disposed (more or less earnestly in a certain direction.)

My soul longs to teach the Word of God; that’s how much I am inclined to pursue the Lord. How can you be a teacher unless you follow understanding?

However, I don't see myself as someone who is set, for staying in the Word has become a way of life to me, and when I am not involved in prepping for a study or writing a post, I feel a strange sense of loss. I question whether those moments of discontent are the years of legalism in my head or only my annoyance with this useless world.

My Pastor recently told the Church, with the hope of getting the audience on board with his decision, that he was going to fast commercials on the television (Fasting is meant to set aside personal time and pleasures, like eating, so that you draw closer to God. When it comes to fasting commercials on the television, how do you do that without fancy equipment like a “Tivo?” - I don't think they still exist. The Tivo unit allowed you to bypass the commercials, among other things. I don't have that kind of equipment, but I suppose I could shut the sound off, but then there are the images.

Why fast commercials?

Because it is a known fact that commercials are designed to control your thoughts and perceptions of life, some of my family members are prime examples of this, as they must wear the latest name brand product, or, they will call and say, you have to try this newest product. Most of the time, it isn’t any better than the last thing, and often it’s worse. Commercials are trying to conform you to somebody’s idea of what the world should be drinking, driving, or wearing.

Romans 12:2 NASB And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

1 John 2:15-17 NASB Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world. (17) The world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

But the mind, set on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:6 NASB “For the mind, set on the flesh is death, but the mind, set on the Spirit is life and peace,”

If a commercial, which makes you focus your attention on the lusts of the flesh, a thing of death, then it too must represent death, because it certainly has your mind, set on fleshly things.

Doesn’t this word death demand an explanation? Sure it does, because I have been focusing my attention on commercials my entire life. And yet, I don’t seem to be dead. This terminology of death is so similar to what we saw God say to Adam.

“but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, 'You are neither to eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.'” Genesis 3:3 CJB 

Although physical death began that very moment, it could not be seen. At the same time, another aspect of death that could not be seen was the separation of their soul's relationship with God. This spiritual death evidences itself most in the brokenness of the relationship between the human and the Father (God.) So the mind, set on the passions of the flesh, dies on the inside. It is inevitable, as you forget what it is to have God's life and peace in you.

In opposition to death, there is life.

“but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” (Romans 8:5b. TNIV)

I suppose the question here is, what do you have your spirit set on?

“The mind, controlled by the sinful nature, is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6 TNIV)

• The word set, or controlled as the TNIV puts it, is the Greek word phronēma and means: to have a (mental) inclination or purpose.
• The word inclination, according to Webster's dictionary, means A leaning of the mind or will, propension or propensity, a disposition more favorable to one thing than to another.

So, having my mind controlled by the sinful nature of my flesh, started with my leaning toward one thing more than the other. That other was God. The end result is death or the advanced deterioration of my relationship with the Father.

Romans 8:7 MSG,  “Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.”

Dr. J. Vernon McGee states: “This verse reveals how hopelessly incorrigible and utterly destitute the flesh really is. It is a spiritual anarchist. This demolishes any theory that there is a divine spark in man and that somehow he has a secret bent toward God. The truth is that man is the enemy of God. He is not only dead in trespasses and sins but active in rebellion against God. Man will even become religious in order to stay away from the living and true God and the person of Jesus Christ.”

When you study the chain of events that led up to the flood, you see one central theme, that every thought of man was only evil, and the world was filled with violence. A statement like this would back up Dr. McGee's assertions. But, are we entirely hopeless? I don't want to think so, because there was a thread of hope that ran through Adam to Noah. (An explanation for humanities fall in this circumstance is there in Genesis chapter six. Many cannot see it, and most refuse to see it. It requires more than a simplistic reading of the chapter.) Perhaps, if we could remove all the influences that remove us from God, then maybe we could live in an open, vibrant, and honest relationship with the Father, but how would you make that happen?

Romans 8:8 NASB, “and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

When Paul wrote, what a wretched man I am, I feel confident that he meant it. However, there is hope; there is always hope. Surrounded and inundated by the pulls of the flesh, what am I to do?

Romans 8:9 NASB, However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Consider what this is saying to us.

• You are not in the flesh – if the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Early in this letter to the Romans, Paul said, “and you are dead to sin if you have been baptized into His death.”

What's the rule associated with dead people?

They are no longer capable of sinning, or, as Romans 8 tells us, pleasing the flesh. Yet we dead folk still sin? Quite a dilemma if you don't have Christ. Consider that with Christ, we are held righteous in God's eyes. Now that may be another story with people, especially religious people, but as followers of Christ: 1. We are not indulging, repeatedly, and wantonly in sin. 2. We keep focused on the truth that we are buried in Him, that our life is in Him, and we have the Spirit of life in us and belong to God.

Romans 8:9 appears to have an addendum.

• “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

How would we know that someone did not have the Spirit of Christ in them?

An obvious answer might be to look at their fruit, but I have known people who appear to be in Christ, simply because they go through the motions at church, and yet I am not sure what their fruit is or resembles. While others, who have also gone through all the motions, but their fruit is rotten on their branches. The bottom line for me, I am going to let God sort this out at the end.

Under the umbrella of, there is always hope, we have this.

Romans 8:10 NASB, If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

How can the body be dead and still have functionality here on earth? It can't, so death then must be thought of as spiritual, and expresses itself in a variety of ways. And yet, here is that hope once again, the spirit is still alive because of righteousness. Righteousness is right standing with God, nothing more and nothing less.

Webster's dictionary defines righteousness like this: “Purity of heart and rectitude of life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law. Righteousness, as used in Scripture and theology, in which it is chiefly used, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law. It includes all we call justice, honesty, and virtue, with holy affections.”

That right standing that Paul speaks of is only contingent upon one thing, our faith in Jesus Christ and the price He paid; that's it, and this faith gives us our life in the Father. All this freedom and hope sounds too good to be true. And yet there is more.

Romans 8:11 NASB But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

• If, the same Spirit The qualifying action is faith and acceptance.
• of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, He who raised Jesus from the dead is God the Father.
• dwell in you, Paul said, if you were baptized into Him, then He now resides in you.
• (Then) He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead Again, we are talking about God the Father.
• will also give life to your mortal bodies. God will give life to your human body. Now wait a minute, this makes sense if I am dead, as He will, I assume, breath life back into my body. I am not sure I understand why He couldn't just as easily make me another. But what if Jesus comes back to catch us away and I am alive, what happens then? Apparently, we are not as alive as we thought we were.
• through His Spirit who dwells in you. All this life and the restoration of life happens because of the life that dwells in us. We just went over who this is that resides  within you? Jesus Christ, however, here on earth, it is the Holy Spirit, who is just as much God as the Son, dwelling in us. The Holy Spirit of God is our life here on earth.

Well, that same Spirit does dwell in me; so then, He will also give this life to my mortal body, through that same Spirit.

It is irrelevant, but why do I need this body?

I don't know, but God seems to have a purpose since He made it with all these sensory organs, that like to eat fruit and other things. Perhaps this all plays into our eternity with Him, as Jesus, in His physical return, made a fire, cooked some fish, and ate with the men. He had that “new” body, one that doesn't need to eat anymore; then maybe we can assume that He ate for the pure pleasure of it.

If you don't know my Jesus, you can. Simply ask to bring this life back into yours and chase Him as though your life depended upon it.

Paul tells us why Romans 8:1 works. Romans 8:2-4.

We learned in Romans 8:1 that there is NOW (an ever-present tense) NO condemnation.
To me, an obvious conclusion is that this applies to my relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ.

So what does Romans 8:2 tell us?
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:2 NASB)

As I sit with my friend, going through the book of Romans, I am reminded of how many times I have heard the phrase within the Christian community - we are free from the law.
At moments like that, I turn to my friend and ask, is that an accurate statement?

Well, right there, in front of us, are words in opposition to that assertion.
For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.

Let's tear this up for a moment. The word law is focused on the requirements that the Jews understand, the Torah. If you are a devout follower of Warren Wiersbe, then you are already looking for a way to fight with me because he leans heavily toward an exclusively Gentile audience.

The word Law, as included in Romans, is the Greek word nomos and means anything established; anything received by usage; a custom; a law, or a command. Yes, the Torah falls under these categories.

But, did the Jews, as Paul points out, know the Torah as something that brought life?
Hardly; all they could perceive was the word NO, just like impudent children.
If you read my previous posts on Romans, then you would understand that these people, Moses led out of Egypt, were effectively Egyptians. I pointed out how Stephen, gave the Jewish council a history lesson, which none of them disputed, in which he accurately points out how "Israel" brought their Egyptian gods and the tent of Moloch out of Egypt. The "law" written in stone was, at this point, ten simple rules, and yet, we see the immediate death that the law brought, as the first rule was to love the Lord their God. The problem is, Jehovah was not their Lord.

Is there a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that we can turn to? Absolutely, but we don't call it a law; we call them the gospels, epistles, and letters to the church.
Jesus said,
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. "For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19 NASB)

One more thing about the law.
Paul opened his letter to the church in Rome, a church primarily comprised of Jewish believers, who had an attitude problem with the Gentile believers, with this statement, “I Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus.”
If Paul, too, had found his freedom in Christ Jesus, then why the slave conversation? 

• Because he knew that the Torah still holds reign over the Jewish community.
• Only with the new eyes, found in a relationship with the Father - through the Son, can we see that the Torah was meant for life.
• And, that this life we live is meant to be lived in the Spirit – the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, not the letter of the law.

So, without calling it “the law,” do we have any constraint upon our lives? Certainly, we do. We have the law written upon our hearts.
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33 KJV)

Spare me the arguments. I realize that contextually Jeremiah 31:33 is talking about the Jews, but God saw fit to add this addendum that makes it valid for anyone. You can find this in 2Timothy 3:16.

Saul, also known to us as Paul, and a self-proclaimed expert in the Torah, could hold his ground with anyone in a discussion about that law. So he knew well the legalism the Torah represented, and yet the Torah is the basis for the freedom we find in the New Testament. It kind of makes you wonder what Jesus might have said to Saul after He knocked him to the ground, although we should take into consideration that Saul/Paul spent three years in the Sinai peninsula, at the base of the mountain where Israel had camped, listening to the instructions from the Holy Spirit.

As a follower of Christ, there is no longer any condemnation toward me from Jesus, the one to whom all judgment has been given. Why that works has everything to do with the cross, including the life I now live because of and through Him.

Freedom from the law of sin and death.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, (Romans 8:2-3 NASB)

Let's stop here for a minute.
Verse two says, “For what the Law could not do, … God did:”
The Law only pointed out the necessity for a savior, although I admit that I still have a tough time seeing that aspect of the law. The law was not the savior, nor could it be the sacrifice for our redemption, that had to be achieved by the blood heir, Christ Jesus. If you have ever seen the movie version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis, you are seeing Azlan play out that role when he gives himself over to the witch as payment for young Edmund's treasonous act.

So what did God do?
“sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin.”

God sent His Son. Since humanity has an embedded/genetic desire to lust/sin, God had to bypass all that by creating His own fertilized egg and implanting it. One of Islam's arguments against the God we serve is what they loudly declare, the disgusting idea that God would have sex. Well, no one said He did. If you cannot handle the idea that the creator of all things, could make a fertilized egg and place that egg inside of Mary, then you need a bigger God.

Now, this is where the statement, in the likeness of sinful flesh, comes into play. Yahshua looked just like every other broken human that walked the earth, there was nothing special about Him. (In case you don't realize, Jesus still maintains that human form.)

The word likeness is the Greek word homoiōma and means a form; abstractly resemblance:

So, when we say, the likeness, He was every bit human, but without the built-in sin. Haven't you ever wondered how Jesus could think through the process of making a whip out of cords, build it, and then use it against the sellers and money changers in the outer courts of the temple that day? What He did was premeditated. I can guarantee you that if I did it, I would be sinning/missing the mark, and yet, in everything Jesus did, He did not sin. I have yet to completely sort that out. Suffice it to say, that sin that lies within me longs to erupt on people at times, but sin was not there with Jesus pushing Him.

Romans 8:3b from the Message.
" In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it."

And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

Romans 8:4 NIV  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So, he condemned sin in the flesh, but who is the “he” referring to?
Jesus. I know, God sent His Son to pay the price, so why can't the “he” refer to God? Alright, let's look at the context once again.

Romans 8:3-4 NIV  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,  (4)  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Plainly you can see, that God sent His own Son to be the sin offering.

The law demanded sacrifices.
Bluntly, blood had to be spilled, but the blood of animals was never enough to redeem back the population of a planet that had been taken captive. And so God gave Himself, in the form of His Son, and the exchange was made, life for life. Satan apparently was not aware of the sinless state of the Son could never trap Him in deception - although he thought he had. What glee he must have felt seeing Jesus hanging on that cross. What a failure this Messiah had proven to be, or so he thought. Satan, it seems, had taken Jesus captive. What a shock when Jesus ripped the doors off the prison gates of Hell. It appears that a forerunner, Samson, had demonstrated how to do it when he ripped out the gates of the city.

The NLT tells us,
Romans 8:3b, 4 “He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body, God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”

Having watched people repeatedly go to the altar to be saved, you have to wonder, do they not understand this?
“He (Jesus) did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for US, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”
This is a present-tense statement. There is nothing about it, in which we have to maintain some status of righteousness; it was done, once, for all. I will admit that if we could keep this righteousness, life here on earth would be a more peaceful place, but it is not, and you know that.

1 Peter 3:18 NLT  Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.

I suggest you read Hebrews chapter 9, for it speaks of this very thing.
Hebrews 9:24-28 NLT  For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.  (25)  And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. (26)  If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.  (27)  And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,  (28)  so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

Romans 8:4 ends like this,
“who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”
This is not a conditional statement, like the one I perceived in Romans 8:1, but a description, as Paul, like God, looked to the future and saw you acting like the King you were meant to be.

The Contemporary English Version does an excellent job of clarifying what is going on here.

Romans 8:4 CEV  He did this so that we would do what the Law commands by obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

Romans chapter eight opens with this,

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
(Romans 8:1 NASB)

I am not good at English grammar, and so I pay to have my work edited to an acceptable and readable degree. I said all that to say, that I may make odd and rather apparent statements, such as, for Paul to open with the word, therefore, is indicative of a thought that needs to be continued; and, it demands that we understand what that previous thought was.

On that note, we ended our look at Romans chapter seven with this upbeat tone.

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
(Romans 7:24-25 NASB)

A small Bible study group I am involved in is studying the same section of scripture but leans heavily on Warren Wiersbe's commentary on Romans. Wiersbe says that this “gives the “therefore of no condemnation...” If that were all I had to go on, I would be scratching my head in bewilderment, but Wiersbe continues with - “a tremendous truth and the conclusion of a marvelous argument.” Well, yes it is, but suppose you had just joined the group that night, would you know what that argument was? Probably not.

In concise words, none of this would be possible if not for “Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

Assuming that you have been following my studies, the majority of you should realize by now, that until the day when this body gets changed, we are stuck with this body of death. In itself, that is a dismal proposition. Thank God Jesus went to the cross.

Here is where that change I spoke of, comes into play.

“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:52 NASB)

As Paul stated in the NASB, “thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we are set free.”

If you operate on the principle that you died to this world and that dead people don't have a problem with lust, then you should make it through this journey with relative success (spiritually.)
Eugene Peterson's Message adds this commentary to Romans 7:25,

“He (Jesus Christ) acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.” The parenthesis is added by me.

And the NLT puts a slightly different spin on 7:25 by saying,
“Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind, I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to sin.”

If it were not for Christ Jesus, we would be lost forever. Ah, but we are not lost, because the answer to this brokenness in us that pushes us to fulfill our desires, is wrapped up in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Some, like Warren Wiersbe's commentary, will try to tell you that you were healed the day you accepted Christ. If you sat in meetings with me, where people try to own that idea, you would hear me say, “I wish that were true.”

As Paul said in chapter seven,
"But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it." (Romans 7:16-20 NLT)

I have learned that, for me, in this life, I need to lean heavily upon the Holy Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus

And with that, we move into Romans chapter eight.
The Complete Jewish Bible starts us off with the word, therefore, as do many other translations.

Therefore, there is no longer any condemnation awaiting those who are in union with the Messiah Yeshua. (Romans 8:1 CJB)

I often hear my spirit say, ARE YOU KIDDING ME as the majority of the condemnation that I have experienced in this Christian life has come from religious people. Need examples?

• The pastor who verbally accosted me and said that I am too edgy to teach Bible study; and yet, he allows others, who stand in defiance as they speak in opposition to accepted church Biblical values and doctrines.

• An individual whom I used to deem a friend, called me a firebrand (this is a person who provokes people,) and scolded me in public because I try to get people excited about the Word of God.

• And then, there is the brother in Christ who wanted to make himself look important by trying to argue me down in a home-group. The question was asked of the small group that night, how big was David when he fought Goliath. (Three hard pieces of Biblical evidence demonstrate his potential size, and it wasn't small.)

So what is Paul saying? Even if abuse or hardship comes, there is NO condemnation awaiting us on the part of Jesus or the Father, because we are in union with Jesus by our acceptance of Him and what He did for us.

The statement, "there is NO condemnation" is straight forward. You would think we should all have this established in our thinking. However, even in a small group that I am part of, a dear lady, who we assume to be knowledgeable in scripture, said, then what do we do with what Paul said about confessing our sin?
I responded, don't you see, the assumption is that:
a. God has just moved you over to the “burn this one in hell” list because of your “sin.”

b. That sin, (You would not expect the eighty-year-old church lady, to be committing grievous sins of the flesh.) has everything to do with raunchy fleshly desires. IT DOES NOT. Sin is merely missing the mark. Every day, we have marks we have to hit, such as loving the unlovable. How does that work out for you? Yeah, me too.
If this “sinning” stuff were the end-all, then NONE of us would go to heaven.

c. This idea of confessing, as though it was a continual act of slaughtering a lamb for your sins, does not change God's heart toward you.

The passage she was referring to is this.
1 John 1:9 NASB says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Obviously, John is talking about the God relationship, but the word confess is not what you think.

Confess is the Greek word homologeō and means to assent.
Assent, from Webster's dictionary, means “the act of the mind in admitting, or agreeing to, the truth of a proposal.”
A proposal? So your mind has been presented with a proposal, and in many cases, the enemy is the one doing the proposing. Another way to look at this is, Satan offers you a jump (off a cliff for all I know,) and even though you are NOT being pushed, you choose not to resist that nonsense and take the jump. IF you have done that and survived, and you are now confessing to a safe and sane believer - hopefully, how you bought into the lie of the enemy. Rejoice for you have done several positive things:

• You have just become open and honest about your sin - in which you missed the mark.

• You are at least, owning your actions, and the damage you may have created.

• Now you have the chance to make a change and potentially NOT do that again.

• And, our intercessor, Christ Jesus, is praying alongside you, for your healing and restoration to sanity.

Before I move on, I want to point something out.

We have many translations available for our usage. If you chose to use the KJV, for example, you would get this: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

Pay attention to these words:
“who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

One version, the exeGeses ready research Bible, indicates that this line is NOT in the original manuscripts. Words added for clarity, such as “There is,” are most often italicized, but that did not happen here, and, to make our understanding more muddled, the KJV gives me Strong's numbers for the added line.

Confusing, absolutely, and it requires that we pay attention and dig a little more.

Now, what do I do with this dilemma that the added line creates?
For me, I run several tests on it, and I lean on the Holy Spirit.

If you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, then you need to ask the Father to fill you with that free gift. Scripture tells us that:

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. (John 16:13 NASB)

So, clearly, the Holy Spirit is a huge benefit, and He – being a persona of God, no less than Jesus is, will show you the truth and guide into the truth. Sorry, but you are just going to have to learn to trust Him, just as you trusted Christ Jesus to be your Lord.

If I choose not to use the KJV translation with the added words, am I losing some deep part of God's heart?

I did not pay much attention to this line before, as much of Romans was like muddy water. Today though, I find that the phrase most certainly implies the meeting of some conditional human standard. If that is the case, who set the standard because knowing that will influence how much effort I put into sorting this out?

Lacking an answer as to who set the standard, I move on to some other test. Now, I find myself asking, does what seem like God's word truly reflect God's nature and character; if so, how would I evaluate that?

Considering that God sent His only Son, to die a brutal death, for a world that did not know or love Him, why would He now put stipulations, on what, Paul pointed out, are impossible in our flesh to fulfill, back on us again? 

I can learn quite a bit about God's character just by looking at Jesus' life. He told us, “whatever I see the Father do, I do.” And, as Peter said, "Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil."

"You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38 NASB)

What I understand about what happened here in Acts 10:38, is that there was no exclusion, as all were oppressed by the devil. Again, I am aware that religious folk will accost you for advocating how Jesus operated by saying, the devil is not hiding under every bush, and they would be right. But consider this, Satan took one-third of the angels with him in his fall. One-third of a countless quantity is an astronomical amount, and they are all most certainly helping Satan in his final attempts at destroying anything and anyone that looks like Jesus.

The bottom line for me, God would not, and has not made a conditional relationship with us.

Sadly, this very conversation became a point of contention in “Bible Study” one recent Thursday. Fortunately, I did my own personal study and then looked at the Wiersbe commentary and that is precisely what he found. I pointed this out to my critic and that person, for the moment, shut-up.

I must admit that having people walk according to the Spirit would be a better way of living for all of us, but we must learn to show people who are struggling, just as we do with the enemy's taunts, a little more grace.

I am going to throw in a verse that I was reminded of today before I started working on this study on Romans 8.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31-32 NASB)


 I came upon this verse in Ephesians in my morning devotional. It is something a group of men I know, do every day. The writer of the devotional, Andy Stanley, asked the question, should we respond affirmatively to this merely because it is God's Word, or should we follow the advice, because Christ has forgiven us? In other words, act like Jesus. 

Does the law = sin. Romans 7:7-25

We ended our last study on the premise that, as the NASB put it, we were released from the Law.

Romans 7:6 NLT But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

Is that a true statement? Well, yes and No.

Yes, because we were released from the bondage associated with the law. How that works is wrapped up in Jesus' death and resurrection, for through His death and resurrection He paid the price for our redemption and all sins were forgiven humankind. (Easy, now, as there seems to be a bit of catch to this hope of automatic forgiveness. This forgiveness, though very real, is a gift, and like any gift must be received.) The question is, have you received that gift of life in Jesus Christ?


The NO side of this answer comes out of several things.

1. Jesus himself told us that the law would NOT pass away until all had been fulfilled, and only then would we be done with it. [Since some insist on references as proof, then you can look at Matthew 5:18; Mark 13:31; Luke 16:17.]

When will the law be fulfilled? You could assume that this would happen when Jesus comes back as the warring Messiah Israel longs for. It is at this point that He will shut the mouth of His enemies, and takes His throne, once again, to reign forever. We see this triumphant return at the end of God's wrath, (the period we love to call – The Great Tribulation,) as we transition into the millennial reign. A large portion of this descriptive is found in Revelation 19 verses 11-21. But there are other examples as well.

Jeremiah 3:17 NASB "At that time they will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the LORD,' and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor will they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

Ezekiel 37:25-28 NASB "They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons' sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. (26) "I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. (27) "My dwelling place also will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. (28) "And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel when My sanctuary is in their midst forever."'"

2. The “law” is now written upon our hearts.
Romans 2:14-16 NASB For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, (15) in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, (16) on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

Yes, I am very much aware the these are Gentiles that Paul is speaking of, and, the assumption is that they are godless, because they are NOT of our assemblies, nor have they done the religious things necessary to be acclaimed Christians.

Certainly, you can see that an aspect of the paragraph demonstrates that the “law” bears them witness before God on the day of judgment. Now, if God can write His law upon the hearts of those outside of standardized religion, then He is highly capable of writing His law deliberately upon those He calls His own.

Jeremiah 31:33 KJV But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2 Corinthians 3:3-8 NLT "Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. (4) We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. (5) It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. (6) He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. (7) The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. (8) Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life?"
There is one other idea I need to mention.

3. For those hoping that this all bypasses the “law” and allows them to do whatever they want. Doing whatever you want here on earth can get you killed, and for many, we have a legal system to deal with those who break the laws of man.

Notwithstanding, the things you do here on earth have little to do with the end result of a life spent with the Father in the future, although there are those that will tell you that you can jeopardize God's love for you. (To think that God would ever turn His back on you is broken human thinking and needs to be thrown out with the trash.)

So, even though we are free from the bondage of the law through Jesus, there is something that maybe even more constraining, and that is that we are considered bondservants to Jesus. You want that in plain English? A bondservant is a polite way of saying, slave.

Ask yourself, what rights do slaves have? In truth, NONE, however, we are voluntary slaves (bondservants) and have the FREE WILL to destroy the body God gave us.

So, this life we live in Christ is one of choice. Do we, as the thief on the cross, choose to turn to the only one who truly loves us, and in a sense, bond ourselves in marriage; or, do we submit as slaves in obedience? For me, the reciprocity of a marital relationship wins out. In human terms, the marriage relationship is not one where we are always lying in fields of clover without a care in the world; no, there are days when the sound of your spouse's voice grates on your last nerve. Is it that way with the Father? Even if He calls me a moron, which He sometimes does, I still know that I am loved because we have a relationship based upon respect. (It is not because I respect Him that He loves me, but I have learned what His character and nature are, and out of that I have learned that He can be trusted.

What if the alternative is douleuō/slavery?
A friend of mine, because of abuses, could not handle the thought of slavery; he could accept Paul's words if he could see his role as one of a bondservant, simply because the bondservant, having been treated with respect, longs to stay in the relationship.

“But now we have been released from the law,” but, as C. S. Lewis says, "there is no easy Christianity."

The NASB opens the next section as:

The Law and Sin

Heres a standardized version to start us off.
(Romans 7:7 KJV)  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. (8)  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. (9)  For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (10)  And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. (11)  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

If the law, as Paul puts it, caused or causes so much grief, then is it bad, or worse yet, is the law SIN? Eugene Peterson put it this way, “then it's no better than sin itself.” But you instinctively know this is not a true assumption because SIN came into the world at a time when there was no law as we understand it.

Now hold up a minute and think about how that sin entered into the world.

Did Adam take a bite of the fruit before or after sin?
Sin was already active and waiting for him. If you want to get legalistic there was a law, in the form of a commandment – do not eat the fruit of that tree. Since sin is merely missing the mark, the mark for Adam was to obey that one commandment, which he chose not to obey. The commandment to obey was, in reality, a law.

When we read this epic story of humanity's insertion into the earth and their fall, we assume the entire transaction took place in five minutes, after all, that's how long it took my Sunday School teacher to tell the story while using the flannel board cutouts. The difficulty is, we don't have any solid scriptural evidence that leads us to that conclusion. Since the Hebrew word eon is contingent upon other words to define its time frame; and, there was NO clock or calendar, then the time frame between the commandment to not eat the fruit of that ONE tree and the damage done could have been a billion years. (Yeah, I know, that gives many of you grief, as you think the entirety of creation until this moment in time is only about 10,000 years. My word to you, your God is too small.)

Let's analyze what Paul said in verse seven.

“on the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law;” NASB

Are you trying to tell me, that Saul the pharisee did not realize that having people, like Stephen, killed by stoning, was missing the mark? Ah, but for Saul, Stephen, a blasphemer according to "the law/Torah," was deserving of stoning.

Alright, then, let's back up in time to a time when the toddler Saul, first told his mommy NO. This is something that every child does, but where does that rebellion come from? It's there, already embedded, thanks to Adam.

Does a toddler understand that an outright refusal, under reasonable conditions, is inappropriate? They may not at first understand, but it is something they soon learn based on, if nothing else, a commandment (a parental law,) with appropriate enforcement. Should the child have functional mental capacity, then in a short course of time, they come to understand that there are repercussions for open, and antagonistic disobedience.

One of my grandsons was born with a cancerous brain tumor and had to have it removed on his third day of life. He is now 16, praise God. But between the ages of three and four, he did not just say no, he would slap you in the face. The common understanding amongst the family was that his brain functions had taken a tremendous beating from the tumor, the surgery, and then the chemotherapy treatments, and he was not thinking clearly, as a healthy child might. Still, the behavior had to be checked, and quickly.

So when Paul says I would not have come to know sin except through the Law, perhaps he is saying, having been taught that there was a law as a young child, I came to understand that going outside the parameters of the Law, was to miss the mark (sin.)

The Phillips translation reads: “sin in me, finding in the commandment an opportunity to express itself, stimulated all my desires.”

The King James Version of Paul's statement reads like this "I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet."

Warren Wiersbe's commentary on Romans, along with many other translations, seems to focus on the word covetousness. The word covet as used in the NASB version of Romans 7:7 is epithumeō and means to set the heart upon, or, to long for. That can mean to long for anything which is not yours. I, too, have that problem when a really nice car or truck goes by me.

In Romans 7:8, the word applied is coveting. It's a variation from the usage of the word covet that we see in verse seven, but not too much. Coveting is the Greek word epithumia and means a longing, especially for what is forbidden. For some, "lust" is a motivation to steal, while for others, it is to take the sexuality of a woman without her permission.

Can something be prohibited without a commandment or instruction? I would have to say no because God seems to have covered all His bases. This is evidenced in Paul's next assertion, for Paul himself said the law of God is written on some people's hearts. Why then do they take what is not theirs, and what excuse do they use?

Is it remotely possible that Saul, before he became known as Paul, as a young man, did not know Law and the ramifications? Hardly, he was a pharisee and ran with the best of them. The process of learning who you were and what was expected of you began early. These kids did not go to regular school, as many of us did, they went to synagogue school, or they were taught at home. But know this, the Torah was central to their education. So, it is safe to assume that Saul, much like what we saw in Jesus when at the age of 12, they found Him in the temple discussing the scriptures with the temple elders, would have been adept at scripture at an early age.

Romans 7:8 KJV “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.”

I used the KJV version and it threw us a curveball because it used the word concupiscence - a word that NO ONE uses. It is still the word epithumia and means a longing (especially for what is forbidden).

“But sin took the opportunity provided by this commandment and made me have all kinds of wrong desires. Clearly, without laws sin is dead.” (Romans 7:8 God's Word)

So the law/commandment evoked all kinds of wrong desires. Apparently, most of which centered around fulfilling one's desires, whether it be for something the other person had or the attractiveness of a woman.

Again Paul's words.
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; (Romans 2:12 NASB)

So Paul can say, “for apart from the Law sin is dead.” Because, without the law, it would seem that there is no judgment, but you know that is not true, as they, the Gentiles outside of Christ, are judged through Jesus Christ. Fortunately, Christ paid for everyone's debt on the cross.

“For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.” (Romans 2:14-16 NASB)

Romans 7:9 Moffatt NT “I lived at one time without law myself, but when the command came home to me, sin sprang to life and I died;”

The NLT says, “the power of sin came to life.” Maybe that is another of saying, after the Law came, the party was over.

Romans 7:10 MSG “The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong.”

Another version: “…The commandment that was intended to bring me life was found to be bringing me death!” (CJB)

So, I should be able to look at what God did to the people Moses brought out of Egypt, as something that was supposed to guide them into life. I cannot imagine the law having any other impact upon them either.

Consider something: without the law, Israel had NO constraints.
Deeming Moses to be dead, they had Aaron make them the Moloch idol upon which they could go back to roasting their children to this “unknown” god. So the law then came to them, and sin sprang to life, and what happened, many of them died as well.

Romans 7:11 MSG “So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead.”

"Having one's mind controlled by the old nature is death, but having one's mind controlled by the Spirit is life and shalom." (Romans 8:6 CJB)

• A mind
• Controlled by the old nature
• Is death.
• But somehow changing one's mind to be controlled by the Spirit (This is the pneuma - the breath of God, or, as we know it, the Holy Spirit of God,) is life and peace.

How do you do that? We renew our minds by putting God's Word into our hearts. Isn't that nice, I used a religious phrase on you, "just put God's Word into your heart." Seriously?
Let me explain, as I have been preparing so that I can convey the obscure things Paul has been saying, I, too, have been absorbing these Words. In a sense, I have been putting them into my heart. Just days ago, I walked through these same words I am giving you, with a good friend of mine. We both had to admit that these Words, which are alive, are changing us, and we could both see the changes and identified them.

Romans 7:12 NIV “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”
Nothing conveys a theme better than the Word, so let's look at what the Psalmist wrote.

For the word of the LORD is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. (Psalms 33:4 NASB)

Once again, Paul's apologetic/common sense argument comes into play.
Romans 7:13 CJB “Then did something good become for me the source of death? Heaven forbid! Rather, it was sin working death in me through something good, so that sin might be clearly exposed as sin, so that sin through the commandment might come to be experienced as sinful beyond measure.”

“Then did something good become for me the source of death?” I know, I have talked about this a lot recently, but you need to understand something. These people that God brought out of Egypt were effectively Egyptians, and followed after Egyptian god; Moloch is one of them. They had to be retrained and constrained. I can guarantee you that they cried like babies.

Romans 7:14 CJB For we know that the Torah is of the Spirit; but as for me, I am bound to the old nature, sold to sin as a slave.

By the way, what Paul wrote here is not defeatist, it is an act of aggressiveness, as you now recognize who and what the enemy looks like. No, I am not necessarily the enemy, but it sure is something that lives with me every day. Now, if we could grasp the idea, that we are in Christ, and that our relationship with Him is comparable to being baptized into His death, then we too are dead to sin, just as He is. (There is so much more than this, but I am trying not to lose you.)

In Celebrate Recovery, a spin-off of AA, you introduce yourself as, insert your name here _, a grateful believer in Jesus Christ, recovering from _ insert your problem here_. Mine happened to be rage.
The Apostle Paul can easily be visualized as standing before the crowd and saying,
Good evening. My name is Paul, a grateful believer in Jesus Christ,
and I am a recovering Pharisee, and a slave to sin.

Paul next talks about his own struggle. Romans 7:15 CJB I don't understand my own behavior—I don't do what I want to do; instead, I do the very thing I hate!

My grandparents had all kinds of sayings, one of them was “landsakes.” I honestly don't know what that means. I can speculate to no avail, but what I do know, is that when one of them said it, you knew they were not particularly thrilled with whatever you did. I can just hear Paul talking to himself as he says, “well for landsakes,” I don't understand my own behavior.

If God lives in you, then there is a driving force inside you, called the Holy Spirit, telling you, you don't need to be doing that!

In what seems like a struggle with the law, there comes this. 
Romans 7:16 NLT “But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.”

A general, and safe assumption, is that everything that has been said, has been stated on a previous occurrence. This was not done to bore you, it was done because we forget, and, the most important aspect, all prophecy, to the Jewish mind, is born from patterns. Repetition helps to establish God's prophetic word. Note David's words.

Psalms 119:127-128 NASB (127) Therefore I love Your commandments Above gold, yes, above fine gold. (128) Therefore I esteem right all Your precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way.
So, the law is good.

Romans 7:17 MSG “But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!”

At some point in my readings, I saw this phrase, the law, above anything else, showed us that we need God's grace. In recovery, one of the defining moments is when you realize that you are out of control and that you cannot do this by yourself. Our Christian walk is not so different, and that is why God sent the Holy Spirit. Oh sure, I, and you, need other believers to help us along the way, but of a kindred spirit and a sane mind. Why? Because we are broken, and our only hope of getting through this comes through Jesus Christ. The following is Romans 7:18-24 from Eugene Peterson's Message.

I realize that I don't have what it takes. 

I can will it, but I can't do it. 

I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; 

I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. 

My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. 

Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. 

It happens so regularly that it's predictable. 

The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. 

I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. 

Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. 

I've tried everything and nothing helps. 

I'm at the end of my rope. 

Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? 

(Romans 7:18-24 MSG)

I will admit at this point, that I am in tears because I have felt this way. Thank God I know what the next verse says.

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. 

He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. 

(Romans 7:25 MSG)

Enough said.